Hard Drive Prices Estimated to Fall by 2014 at Earliest

[That_Stevens_Guy]

I buy externals and void warranties. It is just cheaper this way atm. They used to be mostly Green drives, which are fine for storage, but the USB 3 Seagate Expansion Drives that are going for as little as $94 atm for 2TB sport a 7200rpm Caviar. I am not fussed on HDD brands, had about an equal experience with all of them, and work for a computer store that sees about equal with failures these days anyway.

[neo dewolf]

But lets face it, $100-150 for basic 2tb isnt overly expensive...

Before they crashed they got to around $80 for 2TB, they are now $125.

first world problem....

The one benefit from HDD rapage is that SSD are now starting to become mainstream and affordable = YES!

[Mooncabbage]

The one benefit from HDD rapage is that SSD are now starting to become mainstream and affordable = YES!

I'm just going to assume that was some kind of hilarious joke.

I got a couple of $80 2TB drives right before the flood, and was looking again like, 2 days ago. $125 for the exact same thing. That's more than 50% more! These prices are still insane.

Tbh, I'm kind of surprised those mergers were approved and went through. Yay, another duopoly.

[neo dewolf]

The one benefit from HDD rapage is that SSD are now starting to become mainstream and affordable = YES!

I'm just going to assume that was some kind of hilarious joke.

SSD's are the future bro... they gotta start somewhere - right now they're at $1/GB, and this is the point where HDD's took off as a consumable device.

[COM76]

But lets face it, $100-150 for basic 2tb isnt overly expensive...

Before they crashed they got to around $80 for 2TB, they are now $125.

Exactly i just filled in a warranty slip for my 2tb drive and decided to purchase another one while i was at it. Turns out i payed 80 bucks for the original drive and i am paying 125 for the new one over a year later.

[Ball0fire]

hard drive manufacturing output is back up to pre flood levels, yet the prcies arent....they just taking the oppertunity to make some easy money to pay off the factory rebuilds

[diamondd]

hard drive manufacturing output is back up to pre flood levels, yet the prcies arent....they just taking the oppertunity to make some easy money to paff off the factory rebuilds

exactly, some people are getting a little too butt-hurt over the whole thing..

[SaNE]

hard drive manufacturing output is back up to pre flood levels, yet the prcies arent....they just taking the oppertunity to make some easy money to paff off the factory rebuilds

exactly, some people are getting a little too butt-hurt over the whole thing..

'butt-hurt'... Really?

[diamondd]

don't see why not, some people are complaining like its a basic human right that hard drives should get cheaper every year.

[vague_hit]

err not a basic human right, but basic economics. the sizes are getting larger, the speeds are getting faster, the older models should be cheaper, that's the sum of it.

although it HAS been good for ssd prices, I finally bought a 128gb ssd as my main boot drive and it's amazing the difference it made moving from a hybrid drive. not looking forward to finally coughing up the $450 or so I'll need to buy three 2tb drives to move all my data onto though... especially since a couple of years ago it would've cost me under 300

[diamondd]

err not a basic human right, but basic economics. the sizes are getting larger, the speeds are getting faster, the older models should be cheaper, that's the sum of it.

well obviously, but I think people could be a little more understanding when most of the country was under water. But I suppose cheap hard drives are more important.

[vague_hit]

WAS under water. other manufacturing plants have stepped up since then. as the original article points out, the only reason why the prices are still high is because of the mergers causing them to have a monopoly

[vague_hit]

I buy externals and void warranties. It is just cheaper this way atm. They used to be mostly Green drives, which are fine for storage, but the USB 3 Seagate Expansion Drives that are going for as little as $94 atm for 2TB sport a 7200rpm Caviar. I am not fussed on HDD brands, had about an equal experience with all of them, and work for a computer store that sees about equal with failures these days anyway.

thanks for the tip, cheapest i can find those drives for is 99, where have you seen it for 94? i was considering getting two of the 3tb externals from msy for $154 each

[diamondd]

WAS under water. other manufacturing plants have stepped up since then. as the original article points out, the only reason why the prices are still high is because of the mergers causing them to have a monopoly

The floods caused 45 billion dollars worth of damage and losses to an emerging country and it wasn't even a year ago yet, cut them some slack.

Sure they're probably monopolising things a bit but who can blame them? They don't owe us anything and hard drives are still affordable anyway.

[elfalot]

The floods caused 45 billion dollars worth of damage and losses to an emerging country and it wasn't even a year ago yet, cut them some slack.

Was that the area damage bill for the whole area? As a company wouldn't they have insurances or something to cover that, plus from a tax perspective been able to claim losses?

Sure they're probably monopolising things a bit but who can blame them?

Since when is monopolising an acceptable practice? It may happen a lot but it doesn't mean it's OK.

They don't owe us anything and hard drives are still affordable anyway.

I kind of agree, thought I wish the gap between pre-flood and now were slightly smaller ($10 or so for the lower end etc).
I'm also hoping that things get better earlier than 2014.